Joe Lee // #JoeLee //
Waiting for Swan Lake
[single, 2023]
//via // #JoeLee //
#brandunbrand #music #bandcamp #JoeLee #WaitingForSwanLake #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #Tchaikovsky
link bandcamp: https://joeleebristol.bandcamp.com/track/techno-swan-lake
#PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #ThroughTheNight Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Joanne Kolomyjec, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra & Mario Bernardi: 🎵 Twill soon be midnight (aria from 'Pique Dame') #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #JoanneKolomyjec #CalgaryPhilharmonicOrchestra #MarioBernardi
Tchaikovsky – 6th Symphony Pathetique
Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, was his last symphony. The composer died just nine days after conducting its premiere in 1893. Some believe the music hints at his own death. Others think the symphony hides a secret programme Tchaikovsky had never disclosed.
Pathos
One of the most emotional pieces in music history, the work was entitled “The Passionate Symphony”, that means “passionate” or “emotional”, not “arousing pity”. The title “Pathetique” comes from the Greek “pathos”, meaning “deep emotion and suffering”.
The emotional intensity is off the charts. Tchaikovsky pours raw feelings into this piece: desperate passion, deep depression, and a sense of farewell. For this reason he called it the “most sincere thing” he ever wrote.
The piece is filled with extreme emotional contrasts. One moment it’s soft and sweet, the next it’s exploding with rage and despair. It feels deeply personal, which is why it hits so hard, still today.
The music
The first movement starts with a lonely bassoon playing a sad, sighing melody. Then it builds into a heartbreaking main theme in a storm of emotions.
The second movement is in 5/4 time, which was very unusual back then. You can consider it a waltz that keeps tripping over itself.
The third movement feels like it’s the finale (it’s a powerful, almost victorious march), which makes the actual slow finale even more shocking to listeners. It’s like Tchaikovsky is playing with our expectations.
The finale completely breaks the rules. Instead of ending with a triumphant finale like most symphonies, Tchaikovsky does something radical. He puts a slow, dying-away final movement that fades into a heartbreaking silence. Nobody was doing this at the time! Symphonies were supposed to end with a bang, not a whisper.
The mystery behind the symphony
Tchaikovsky’s sudden death remains a mystery. The official cause was cholera, but some believe he took his own life. Some even see the symphony as a coded farewell message, with the last movement representing his final surrender. At the time, being openly gay in Russia was impossible, and some theories suggest he was under pressure because of it.
The secret programme
The 6th symphony is not a program music, at least not in a official way. Some historian think that Tchaikovsky wrote a programme for this piece, but kept it secret and no one could ever see it. The secret programme of the symphony is about love between men: the search for it, from the beginning of the first movement; finding it, in the romantic andante theme (measure 89); and the attacks of a hostile world on it, in the agitated allegro vivo passage that follows (measure 161); and escape from that, in the return to the love theme (andante come prima, measure 305). The last movement, Karlinsky was told, is an elegy for a dead lover.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/SVnF3x44rvU
#6thSypmhony #classical #orchestra #pathetique #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #symphony #Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
https://wgom.org/2025/05/31/pyotr-ilyich-tchaikovsky-dance-of-the-sugar-plum-fairy/
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #EssentialClassics Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Manfred Honeck: 🎵 Symphony No 4 in F Minor, Op 36 (1st mvt) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #PittsburghSymphonyOrchestra #ManfredHoneck
#OnThisDay in 1840, #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky, Russian #composer of the late-Romantic period (1812 Overture; The Nutcracker; Swan Lake), born in Votkinsk, Russia (d. 1893). 💔😢😭
#RIP
#OnThisDay in 1891, Music Hall (now Carnegie Hall) opens in New York City, with #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky as guest conductor of the New York Music Society Orchestra.
"Overture of 1812" #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8
#OnThisDay in 1876, #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky completes his ballet "Swan Lake".
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #InTune Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Herbert von Karajan & Vienna Philharmonic: 🎵 Swan Lake Suite (Lac des cygnes) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #HerbertvonKarajan #ViennaPhilharmonic
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #Breakfast Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France & Paavo Järvi: 🎵 Eugene Onegin (Act 3 Polonaise) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #OrchestrephilharmoniquedeRadioFrance #PaavoJärvi #newRelease - 🆕 album
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #InTune Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Cleveland Orchestra & Lorin Maazel: 🎵 The Nutcracker Suite (March) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #TheClevelandOrchestra #LorinMaazel
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #Breakfast Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Neeme Järvi: 🎵 The Sleeping Beauty (Waltz) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #BergenPhilharmonicOrchestra #NeemeJärvi
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #InTune Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France & Paavo Järvi: 🎵 Eugene Onegin (Act 3 Polonaise) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #OrchestrephilharmoniquedeRadioFrance #PaavoJärvi
#OnThisDay in 1877, #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" has its world premiere, performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.
🔊 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #InTune Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Gauk, Detroit Symphony Orchestra & Neeme Järvi: 🎵 February: Carnival (The Seasons, Op.37b) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #AlexanderGauk #DetroitSymphonyOrchestra #NeemeJärvi
🔊 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #Breakfast Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Andrew Litton: 🎵 Symphony no. 4 (2nd mvt) #BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #BournemouthSymphonyOrchestra #AndrewLitton
🔊 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #EssentialClassics
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Aleksey Semenenko & Inna Firsova:
🎵 Méditation from Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42
#BBCRadio3 #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #AlekseySemenenko #InnaFirsova
▶️ 🪄 Automagic 🔊 show 📻 playlist on Spotify
▶️ Track on #Spotify:
Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 4...
Ring, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky at the National Concert Hall
After a gap of a few weeks due to other commitments, last night I went to the National Concert Hall in Dublin to see and hear another programme of music performed by the National Symphony Orchestra. Unusually for these Friday evening concerts by the NSO, it wasn’t broadcast live or even, judging by the absence of microphones on and over the stage, recorded. I suppose that might have been for some contractual reason.
Tyhe conductor for this performance was Patrik Rinborg, from Sweden. The first thing that struck me about him was that he is very tall – his was a towering presence on the podium. Looking through my back catalogue I find I attended a performance of the Dvořák Requiem conducted by him back in January 2020, not long before the pandemic struck.
The first piece, Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake by Judith Ring, received its performance in January 2023. The title is from a translation of a quite by Fernando Pessoa. I found this piece quite interesting, especially the changes of colour and energy, but spoilt a little for me by the repeated short sliding phrases coming from the trombones, which I thought sounded rather lavatorial and therefore jarring in the context of the work. Anyway, Judith Ring was in the audience last night and came up on stage at the end of the performance to great applause.
The second work was a perennial favouite in the concert hall, the Cello Concerto in B minor by Antonín Dvořák. I think most people, if asked to name half-a-dozen great works for cello and orchestra would put this one on their list. Last night’s soloist was Camille Thomas, resplendent in a glamorous purple frock, who played beautifully. Her body language was interesting even when she wasn’t playing, sometimes leaning back with her arms by her sides as if transported by the music, and sometimes turning around to look at the orchestra to encourage them. She got a well-deserved ovation at the end, and did a solo encore in the form of a piece called Song of the Birds by Pablo Casals.
After the wine break we returned for Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In advance of the concert I had this muddled up with the Manfred Symphony, which I have heard live before. That was indeed the fifth symphony that Tchaikoksky composed, but is not counted among the numbered symphonies. I hadn’t previously heard a full performance of the Symphony No. 5 we heard last night, so I came to it relatively fresh. Things to note about it are distinct shifts in tonality through the four movements, and a single motif repeated throughout in different forms. It did make me think of the Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” by Shostakovich who seems to have borrowed the idea for the “invasion” theme of the first movement.
I enjoyed the performance a lot – it was played with much vigour and nuance by the NSO – but at a first hearing I’m not a huge fan of the piece. It’s a bit less than 50 minutes long and by the end I was very bored with the motif. I wasn’t as uplifted by the final movement, where it reaches resolution in E Major, as I think I was supposed to feel as I thought it very brash and unsubtle.
Anyway the audience responded with generous applause at the end of this concert, which was quite a long one (partly because of the encore). For one thing that meant I had much less time to wait for my train back to Maynooth than usual.
#AntoninDvorak #CelloConcertoInBMinor #EverythingWasAsleepAsIfTheUniverseWasAVastMistake #JudithRing #PatrikRingborg #PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky #TchaikovskySymphonyNo5
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